Magic : The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers has Something for New and Seasoned Players Alike

Whilst some of you have been tapping mana, summoning creatures and countering spells for years, newcomers to the game find its myriad of cards, rules and nuances make it rather inaccessible. Fret not, Magic newbies! According to senior business manager Worth Wollpert and senior brand director Aaron Goolsbey they’ve got your green self covered. Included with theÂ Xbox Live release of Magic the Gathering – duels of the Planeswalkers is a robust visual tutorial and they’ve also simplified certain game elements to make it easier for you.

â€œI think one of the key elements, for us, for this game versus what we’ve done in the past — aiming stuff at new players — is we took a different approach to the tutorial,â€ said Wolpert. â€œWe started by dropping players into game situations that are a little further along. We did away with the first couple of turns of the game that we found a bit dry.â€

That doesn’t mean that they’ve left veteran spellcasters out thoughâ€¦

â€œ[There’s] 40 to 50 hours of content that’s not available anywhere else,â€ senior brand director Aaron Goolsbey revealed to Destructoid. â€œThe decks that we constructed, they get increasingly more complex. The AI is the best AI that we’ve ever produced for Magic, so if you can’t find a friend to play with you can always play against the Duels’ AI. It’s spectacular.â€

In addition to complex decks and superlative AI, the game will feature puzzles, as well as online co-op.

â€œWe have a bunch of achievements on XBLA. We have challenges and puzzles that experienced players are going to love. They’re similar to the — I don’t know if you’re familiar with the old-style Duelists puzzles — where you’re dropped into a situation and you have to figure your way out of if or get to a specific endpoint within a few moves. They’re a little bit like chess puzzles. The co-op modes online are also really going to be great for entrenched players. We have two-headed giant so that you can play four-player Magic online with your buddies. There’s a ton of stuff for advanced players.â€

All of which has me pretty excited. Or at least did – I spent far too much time trying to download this last night only to be confronted by Xbox Live marketplace woes.

Magic the Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is available on Xbox Live now for a reasonable 800 points. Reasonable until expansions and DLC eat away all your money. Not unlike the actual game then.

Editor. I'm old, grumpy and more than just a little cynical. One day, I found myself in possession of a NES, and a copy of Super Mario Bros 3. It was that game that made me realise that games were more than just toys to idly while away time - they were capable of being masterpieces. I'm here now, looking for more of those masterpieces.

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